Mantua man hopes to save historic cemetery

An american flag almost disappears in the high grass in the Bank Street cemetery located behind Pearl Street Baptist Church in Bridgeton, Friday, June 21, 2013. (Staff Photo by Cindy Hepner/South Jersey Times)

MANTUA TWP. — It’s a quiet spot in the woods not far from Mantua Boulevard.

In a small clearing off the beaten path, the Jesse Chew Cemetery sits nearly forgotten, silent and serene. The family plot, which belonged to the namesake family of Chew’s Landing Road, dates back about 200 years.

In the time since its most recent occupants were laid to rest, it’s been forgotten and resurrected more than once, and served as a hangout for local teens looking for a small town scare.

Now, local surveyor and amateur historian Jeff Gellenthin hopes to maintain the cemetery and preserve its unique history. Due to questions about the ownership of the land, however, it may not be that simple.

The property surrounding the cemetery belongs to Steve McEntee, owner of the studio and theatrical design company Proof Purchases, Inc. McEntee told Gellenthin in October 2012 that he considers visits to the cemetery trespassing on private property.

His primary reason, McEntee told Gellenthin, was to avoid any liability issues that might arise if someone were to get hurt on the property. Gellenthin also said that McEntee told him a recent survey included the cemetery as part of the property.

Gellenthin, who serves on the township historical commission but emphasizes that he is acting alone, says he has no intention of making the cemetery a public destination.

“I would like it to be as I’m doing right now,” he said. “Just maintaining it.”

Gellenthin has cleared brush and garbage out of the plot, which is marked by a rusty pipe fence. By using historical photos and documents, he’s been able to figure out some of the original locations of graves, some of which are now unmarked.

On more than one occasion, he’s found fragments of grave markers buried just beneath the turf. In addition to the tombstones, Gellenthin has found other local history at the cemetery — this time in the form of decades-old litter left over from teenage parties.

“I’m picking up glass from beer bottles from 50 years ago,” he said.

This is not the first time the cemetery has been in disrepair. In 1969, reporter Francis Spellman of what was then the Woodbury Daily Times wrote about the overgrown burial ground, and in 1992, a local boy scout made cleaning up the graveyard the focal point of his Eagle Scout project. According to Gellenthin, another cleanup conducted by Mantua Township resulted in several headstones being broken by heavy machinery.

The broken and toppled tombstones, with their faded script, hint at the area’s past with names that are now found mostly on road signs around Gloucester County. There are the Chews, of course, but also Eastlacks and Carpenters. Even today, the families are still around in some form or another, with people claiming to be descendants of those families joining the 100 or so signatures on an online petition to save the cemetery.

“My maternal side are Eastlacks,” wrote Randy Hicks of Berkeley Heights.

“I am a direct descendant of Jesse Chew and others in this cemetery,” wrote Wendy Wilkins Valdez. “To lose locations like this is to forget our past.”

McEntee declined to comment.

Gellenthin says he is unsure of the exact ownership of the cemetery because the cemetery has its own plot marker on county tax records. But regardless of who owns the cemetery, the plot is surrounded by McEntee’s property, meaning that all visits involve trespassing.